BKN Nets ~ Rivalry Versus Knicks Finally Has a Home in Brooklyn

From the desk of:   THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

BROOKLYN NETS:  New York Knicks Scheduled to Cross the River and Help Inaugurate Nets Basketball Inside Barclays Center.


It's on!  Reports have it the first clash of the city's cagers will take place on November 1st inside the Barclays Center.  The Manhattan Knickerbockers will cross over the bridge and visit Brooklyn to open up the 2012-2013 regular season in the borough's brand spanking new arena.


The schedule makers must have found favor with the occasion of Brooklyn's first game and just might feel a lot like many fans in Kings County; excited and filled with anticipation.  I know the denizens of Brooklyn feel that way because I travel the borough extensively on a daily basis and talk to as many folks as I can on the subject of Nets/Knicks.  And so far I'm finding a preponderance of Brooklynites pledging their support for the Nets.  I wholly expect games at Barclays not to get over run by Knicks fans.  What happened in New Jersey over the years will not happen here.  I am overwhelmingly positive the Brooklyn Nets will enjoy a very distinct home-court advantage.  And they won't have to wait much longer.  Once the season is set to start, the rivalry will kick off right away.


The Hello Brooklyn campaign has made it to Broadway in a sense.  Joe Johnson looms large in the above billboard affixed to the M and J train Broadway El overlooking eastbound traffic on the  Brooklyn-Queen Expressway.  And in the pictures below, construction continues on Barclays Center which will stage as part of it's grand opening, a series of concerts held by the team's minority share owner; Jay-Z.


With Dwight Howard long out of the picture till at least January, Brook Lopez and Kris Humphfries are officially re-signed.  And I think the Nets will be bettor off for it.  In some applied news, the D-train subway stop formerly known as Atlantic Avenue/Pacific Street, will now be known simply as Barclays Center.  And another report says the Nets are actually trying to trademark the term - "Brooklyn's Backcourt"- which speaks of the tandem of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson.

Barclays Center ~ July 2012

Mike.BTB